Method of laundering toweling



April 1 1924.

S. B. FETHEROLF METHOD OF LAUNDERING TOWELING Filed March 15. 1923 A rfa/w/iys.

Patented Apr. 'l, 1924.

OFFICE.

STEPHEII B. FETI-IEROLF, OF GINCININATI, OHIO.

METHOD OF LAUNDERING TOWELING Application filed March 15, 1923. Serial No. 625,376.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN B. Fnrn EROLF, a citizen of the United States, and

a resident of Cincinnati, in the county of a Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Method of Laundering Toweling, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, refer ence being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to the laundering of toweling in the shape of long strips, such as are used in towel service devices.

This toweling runs, say twenty-five yards in length and of usual individual towel width, and the handling of this in the mechanical washers of laundries has proven to be quite a problem. There are a number of ways used at present for bundling up towel strips in laundries, all of which are reported to me as unsatisfactory, as they all include some step of forming the material into a bundle, and thus the inner layers are protected against the washing 5 action by the longer layers.

It is the object of my invention to form a rope out of a long strip of toweling and make this rope up into a bundle, of which the strands are separate, except for being tied together enough to hold them. The essential thing in my process is to make up the rope-like body, and the form of bundle is not essential, as the rope-like structure does not so act as to prevent washing action and also the various strands in the bundle do not block off the action of the cleansing fluid from each other.

It is also my object to provide a process for making a washable bundle of a strip of toweling which requires the simplest form of machinery, and in one mechanical adaptation I require merely a perforated plate or ring, through which my toweling is drawn onto a simple drum, from which the rope-like structure can be slipped and tied into a coil, like a coil of rope, with a string.

1 accomplish my process more specifically by those steps, to be hereinafter more specifically pointed out and claimed, and by the use of a structure such as will be detailed in the specification that follows.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 illustrates in perspective, the

operation of forming a bundle, from a strip of toweling.

Figure 2 shows a bundle ready to be insorted in a washing machine.

In bringing the strips of toweling to the laundry they may be in the form of a loose bundle of material, or may be in the form of rolls, wound upon spindles. In this last form, the rolls are formed in the dis pensing apparatus, wherein as the towel has been wound from a clean roll, it is wound up again in a soiled roll, and this roll is brought bodily to the laundry.

In either case it is necessary to tie up the mass of towelin'g into a bundle in sending it through the washing process, as a long free strip, say twenty-five yards long, such as is at present in use generally throughout this country, would not be handled by a laundry equipment.

This roll or bundle of toweling as it comes from the user may be dropped into a basket, or the roll itself may be set on a pair of trunnions, which have not been shown, as any form of support would serve.

I have shown a machine consisting of a roller or drum 1, mounted on standards 2, 2. Preferably the bearings for the spindle 3 of the drum are in the form of two members hinged together, as at 4:, with the upper member movable and held down by any form of clip 5. Thus by raising the upper member of the bearing at both ends, the drum may be lifted out of the support. An operating handle 6 is mounted on one end of the drum spindle, and this entire con struction may be made as light as desired, because the work done is slight.

I have shown the confining ring, in the form of a slider, which can travel along as the toweling is wound onto the drum, as in the familiar instance of a fishing reel or I kite reel.

Thus I have illustrated a pair of standards 7, 7 upon which are mounted a pair of rods 8, 8, over which is set a slider 9, having holes to engage over both rods. On the upper side of this slider is a ring 10, through which the toweling strip is caused to pass.

Referring to the drawings, the operation of the device shown is as follows. The towel bundle (or it may be roll) 11, is dumped or supported near the machine, and

the operator takes the end of the strip and passes it through the ring, and forms a loop over the drum catching the end of the rope-like structure resulting from drawing the towel through the ring, under the loop so formed. He then revolves the drum by means of the handle, as rapidly as he desires, and the towel is accumulated on the drum in non-lapping strands. He then lifts the one end of the drum from its bearing, and slips the rope-like body off of the drum, and ties it together with pieces of string.

This bundle as indicated at 12, in Figure 2, tied at 13, is then ready for the-washing machine. It will launder throughout, quickly and very efiectively as the water can get at every portion of the piece, because the strands do not protect each other.

For laundering toweling which comes in rolls, or loose masses, my device is simple to use, and the mechanism shown is merely for purposes of illustration, as the ring structure could be added to any one of the many roll unwinding devices now used in the laundry. I have used a mere revolving drum, as the simplest method of making a looped up mass of the rope-like body formed by passing the toweling through the ring, and also as the quickest method of getting the toweling out of roll form, when received from the customer in this manner. The friction in the ring will cause the toweling to pull snuglyover the drum and thus the rope-like structure will be practically pressed into the fabric by winding it up on the drum, and will stay when looped up and tied into the bundle for washing.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A process of preparing elongated toweling strips into bundles for washing machines which consists in drawing the toweling through a small aperture, to reduce it to a rope-like size, and preparing said ropelike body into a bundle.

2. A process of preparing elongated toweling strips for laundering which consists essentially in first forming a ropelike body out of the long piece and then forming a bundle of said rope-like body.

3. A process oi? preparing elongated toweling strips into bundles for washing machines, which consists in drawing the toweling through an orifice, to form a ropeiike body thereof, and then winding the said body onto a drum, and finally taking the coils thereof oil of said drum, and forming them into a bundle.

4. A process of preparing elongated toweling strips into bundles for washing machines which consists in drawing the strip through an orifice by means of a drum, thereby forming said strip into a rope-like body and practically pressing it into said form, and finally forming a bundle for washing from said rope-like body.

STEPHEN B. FETHEROLF. 

